Church on the fringe?
Hannah Brock is facilitating and supporting a new 'community of praxis' in Sheffield for Church Action on Poverty. She shares some thoughts from their first day of reflection in Sheffield, about what it means to be Church on the Margins.
14 people met at the wonderful Creswick Greave Methodist Church – home of the Parson Cross Initiative – on 11 May for a reflection day, and to get to know one another.
We looked at different images of Jesus that appeal to us, and did a ‘living Bible study’ – thinking ourselves into roles in the story of Jesus healing a man with leprosy – which led is to think about who is at the margins of our society today. We had time to reflect on how people marginalised by society feel in our own church communities and discussed how we could work together in future.
It was a rich day, with opportunities to hear about how the Spirit is at work in different places in our society. Something that really stayed with me was the idea of ‘church on the fringe’: ‘church on the margins’ doesn’t mean ‘lesser’ church – far from it. Like ‘fringe’ festivals, it can mean excitement, creativity and prophecy that challenges the status quo!
- Click here to read more about our Church on the Margins programme.
- Church Action on Poverty and Hannah continue to support the community of praxis, and will organise more events in future. If you’d like to be involved or find out more, please contact Hannah.
